Lipoprotein nanoplatelets important for imaging biological molecules and cells

January 6, 2016

An interdisciplinary research team from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign has developed a new material composite derived from quantum dots. These lipoprotein nanoplatelets are rapidly taken up by cells and retain their fluorescence, making them particularly well-suited for imaging cells and understanding disease mechanisms.

"Quantum dots are being widely investigated due to their unique physical, optical, and electronic properties," explained Andrew M. Smith, an assistant professor of bioengineering at Illinois. "Their most important feature is bright, stable light emission that can be tuned across a broad range of colors. This has made them useful for diverse applications as imaging agents and molecular probes in cells and tissues and as light-emitting components of LEDs and TVs."